Who’s the largest steel producer in the world? Head to head at the top

The World Steel Association just released the yearly report concerning the state of the world steel industry. Who is the largest steel producer in the world? What about the top steel production countries? Who are the biggest US steel companies?
Time to find out!

Taking a look at the largest steel producers of 2019, the top 10 spots feature a couple of slight variations compared to the previous year, but remain mostly the same, with Arcelor Mittal taking the 1st place once again. Closely following at the 2nd position is China Baowu Steel Group, who has been gaining a lot of traction after the acquisition of the Ma­g­ang (Group) Hold­ing – Chi­na’s ninth biggest steel sup­plier. This could potentially lead to Arcelor Mittal being dethroned after almost 15 years, with the Shanghai group becoming the no 1 steel producer in the world.

RANKING COMPANY COUNTRY OUTPUT 2019 OUTPUT 2018 1 ArcelorMittal Luxembourg 97.31 96.42 2 China Baowu Group China 95.47 67.43 3 Nippon Steel Corporation Japan 51.68 49.22 4 HBIS Group China 46.56 46.80 5 POSCO South Korea 43.12 42.86 6 Shagang Group China 41.10 40.66 7 Ansteel Group China 39.20 37.36 8 Jianlong Group China 31.19 27.88 9 Tata Steel Group India  30.15  27.27 10 Shougang Group China  29.34  27.34 11 Shandong Steel Group China  27.58  23.21 12 JFE Steel Japan  27.35  29.15 13 Valin Group China  24.31  23.01 14 Nucor Corporation USA  23.09  25.49 15 Hyundai Steel South Korea  21.56  21.88 16 IMIDRO Iran 16.79 16.79 17 JSW Steel Limited India 16.26 16.83 18 Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) India 16.18 15.93 19 Benxi Steel China  16.18  15.90 20 Fangda Steel China 15.66 15.51 21 Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) Russia 15.61 17.39 22 Baotou Iron & Steel (Group) Co., Ltd. China 15.46 15.25 23 China Steel Corporation Taiwan, China 15.23 15.88 24 Techint Group Argentina 14.44 14.44 25 Liuzhou Steel China 14.40 13.53 26 Rizhao Steel China 14.20 14.95 27 United States Steel Corporation USA 13.89 15.37 28 EVRAZ Russia  13.81  13.02 29 CITIC Pacific  China  13.55  12.55 30 Gerdau S.A. Brazil 13.13 15.80 31 Jingye Steel China China 12.58 11.25 32 Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works Russia 12.46 12.66 33 Shaanxi Steel China 12.45 11.38 34 Sanming Steel China 12.40 11.68 35 thyssenkrupp Germany 12.25 12.58 36 Zenith Steel China 11.93  8.70 37 Severstal Russia 11.85 12.04  38 Tsingshan Stainless Steel China  11.40  9.29 39 Nanjing Steel China  10.97  10.05 40 Taiyuan Steel China  10.86  10.70 41 Anyang Steel China 10.54 10.97 42 Metinvest Holding LLC Ukraine 9.58 9.37 43 Xinyu Steel China 9.47 9.36 44 Donghai Special Steel China 8.90 7.61 45 Jinxi Steel (China Oriental) China 8.73 10.33 46 ERDEMIR Group Turkey 8.61 9.14 47 Steel Dynamics, Inc. USA 8.59 8.92 48 Kunming Steel China 7.73 7.27 49 SSAB Sweden 7.62  8.03  50 Jiuquan Steel China 7.48 7.02
The complete table is available here >>

With the exception of Arcelor Mittal, headquartered in Luxembourg, we must scroll down to the 14th position to see the first non-Asian name, Nucor Corporation (USA); and down below to the 35th position to see a company from the UE, thyssenkrupp (Germany). The data confirm the ongoing trend that sees Asia and most notably China to be the undisputed world leader in crude steel production.

Of the 1.869 million tonnes of crude steel produced globally, in fact, a stunning 53.3% is produced in China, while the output of the EU and NAFTA countries only accounts for 8.5% and 6.4% respectively.  
Compare these figures with the ones from the previous years:

Who are the top 10 steel companies in the world? (2019)
Who rules the steel industry: the top 50 steel producers (2018)
Steel giants: the 50 largest steel producing companies (2017)

Photo by worldsteel / Roger Ball